Craft is now essential to our lives

It’s a good day today. At the weekend the government announced that retail could open as soon as June, although there is no such opening date for galleries.

Also, today the Crafts Council launched their new report ‘The Market for Craft’. It’s an exciting report, and I think, a very positive one. It’s the biggest research into the market for craft in a decade. Craft is clearly something people love and enjoy purchasing, as the report puts it “Craft is now essential to our lives. Craft is no longer a peripheral or isolated area of specialist interest.” 73% of us buy hand-made. Like us, Crafts Council sees craft as a route to ethical consumption and sustainable living, and as a tool for health and wellbeing.

Image from Crafts Council

At New Brewery Arts we want to see Craft valued as both a pastime and profession. The report looks at the shape of the sector, at how the craftspeople are able to have a livelihood and to “live by their creativity” or by “being able to live as far as possible by doing what they loved”. Disappointingly less than half the Master Craftspeople or Established Professional Makers earn their living solely through selling their work. Most have what’s called a ‘portfolio career’, meaning they also teach, or supplement their income through non-craft related activity. Even with a mixed portfolio of income most craftspeople earn far less than the national median annual salary of £30,350.

This is where New Brewery Arts fits in. In our last financial year, we paid over £200,000 to craftspeople through sales of their work in our shop, and we paid a further £95,000 to craftspeople and creatives through tutor fees. New Brewery Arts is what the Crafts Council call an ‘intermediary’. We act as a bridge between those who make, and those who consume craft. Our role supporting craftpeople takes many forms; not only are we a platform for creatives to earn a livelihood through selling and teaching, we provide support including studios, advice and opportunities. Our role is also to promote, elevate and advocate for craft. Our shop, gallery and classes are all ways to excite and inspire everyone. We want people to value craft and why it matters to them, we want people to know the story behind each item they own or make and the materials, resources and skill that went into making it.

That’s what makes today a good day – hearing that more people are enjoying craft, either producing or buying it. Today I feel a little bit closer to a day where everybody celebrates the joy and fulfilment craft brings to their lives and community, and that is a good day.

A charity with a purpose

I set a self-imposed task of writing a blog each week throughout lockdown, and last week I didn’t complete the task. My head was too full of all the news about lifting the lockdown, there was a lot to process. In all honesty I’m not sure I’ve processed the information yet; I think I’m still waiting to see what happens. I’ll admit I was distracted; I had forgotten what it was I had planned to do.

It is all too easy to get distracted by the immediate things at the moment, and to stop seeing the big picture that you originally committed to. New Brewery Arts have a written definition of what we are here for, why we exist, these are called our ‘charitable objects’. Our three objects are rather wordy and are written in legal-ese rather than day-to-day language. They are:

• To advance the education and appreciation of the public in relation to the arts and artistic crafts;

• To enrich the life of the community by providing facilities, open to the widest possible public access, for education and recreation in the arts and artistic crafts;

• To provide cultural and recreational facilities and opportunities to everyone in the surrounding communities, for purposes of learning and social well-being.

Recently we distilled these formal objects into our purpose. We wanted to put these rather wordy objects into language we could actually use.

“New Brewery Arts connects people with the hand-made, promotes the joy and fulfilment of making and celebrates the role of craft and creativity in all our lives.”

So, as we ask ourselves is it even possible to do what we did before? How to we teach a manual, dexterous skill at two meters? How do we serve a coffee? How do we sell a scarf? It feels a like having to learn to walk again, things that were once automatic now require thought and attention.

Our purpose feels like our torch, it shines a light for us on the path we should take. Its an exciting path, full of connection with people, with joy and fulfilment all coming together through craft and creativity. I am sure that whatever happens as, and when we reopen, if we focus on our purpose, and we focus on the very reason why we exist as a charity we can’t go wrong.

What does ‘New’ mean in our name?

One thing that has always struck me is the word ‘New’ in our name. I often jokingly ask “how long can we new for?” Right now it seems like the most meaningful word, it suggests we are always ‘New’, always fresh and looking toward the future. Planning for the ‘new-normal’ is something, if our name fits, we should do constantly.

After six weeks of lockdown I’m feeling ready to look to the future and to think through what re-opening will look like at New Brewery Arts. But rather than asking myself the question “How can we carry on doing what we’ve been doing as everything around us changes?” I’m asking, “What does our community need from us now?” There’s simply no way to just go back to how things were. We’ve all changed, we’ve all learned new things and taken on new ways of thinking about what’s important. When I think about what our community needs I realise that the key to this question is that it’s impossible for me to answer this alone.

“One way to approach the question is to think about what you have missed the most while we’ve been closed, what is the first thing you’d like to do when our doors open?”

I’m throwing the question out to you. What do you think New Brewery Arts will look like when we reopen, what would you like to see us doing more of, or less of? What will the new be? One way to approach the question is to think about what you have missed the most while we’ve been closed? What is the first thing you’d like to do when our doors open?

Our purpose is to “connect people with the hand-made, to promote the joy and fulfilment of making and celebrates the role of craft and creativity in all our lives.” Before COVID-19 we did this through studios, retail, exhibitions and classes – are still the best ways to achieve our charitable purpose and to celebrate craft with you?

Certain things will be bound by the ‘new-normal’ of social distancing – but what should this ‘new’ look like? Should our class groups smaller than before? Would you rather learn at home with our tutors online? How do you want to shop? Would you like more online shopping? How are you finding the 2-meter distance at supermarkets? How can you browse while maintaining this distance?

I’d like to hear as many ideas and points of view as possible, they can be as micro or macro, small or radical as you want, no idea is too trivial or too ‘off the wall’. New Brewery Arts will be changed by COVID, as will all aspects of society – what this will look like must be shaped by us all. Do get in touch with your thoughts – my email is beth@newbreweryarts.org.uk, or you can also leave your comments below on this blog page, or via our social media @newbreweryarts.

We are New Brewery Arts, now we have to work together to decide how we live up to our name.

Wiser choices made with greater care

We are connected to the world both by the people we spend time with (now strangely distanced), and by the objects we have chosen to bring into our lives. I recently came across a piece of writing that chimed made me stop and think about the relationship we have with the objects we love and that we source at New Brewery Arts.

‘Our lives are full of things. Disposable distractions, stuff you buy but do not cherish, own yet never love. Thrown away in weeks rather than passed on for generations. Perhaps things will be different now. Wiser choices made with greater care. After all, if the fewer things you own always excite you, would you really miss the many that never could?’

I’d like to suggest something. While we are on lock-down, with few opportunities for social interaction with people, we could focus instead on the objects with us in our homes, the things that bring comfort and joy, the artefacts we cherish and love. So, take a look around you right now, ask yourself what are the things in your home that you love? Where are they from, who made them and just what is the connection between you and it? What’s the story behind them?

my perfect coffee mug

For me there are many such objects that I feel connected to; my coffee mug – from Muchelney Pottery – without it my first coffee of the day is simply off balance, there is the welsh wool sofa blanket that my husband and I chose together as newlyweds two decades ago - it’s like a hug, yesterday I used a little pottery dish thrown by my daughter when she was seven – its lumpy and chipped but I love it because she made it. These objects are special, they connect me to the world, to the people I love and to moments in my life. And right now, on lock-down, these connections are amplified, my world has shrunk down to my home and it’s more important to me than ever that the things I own excite me and mean something to me.

I hope you too are safely at home, surrounded by the things that you love, objects that mean something special to you. I hope that you use them and enjoy using them. These weeks of lock-down are an opportunity for us to get closer to these special objects, to appreciate them once again, to remember why we cherish them and how we love them. And when lock-down lifts, I hope that we have learnt to value the ‘things’ in our lives, and as we start to bring things into our homes again we remember this time and we make ‘wiser choices made with greater care’.

beth@newbreweryarts.org.uk